The Young Pope is a HBO series starring Jude Law as the pope. A number of previews are available on You Tube. Of the many, one is particularly noteworthy for this blogger [1]. Starting at approximately 2:57, based on what he heard, it appears that these were the words said by the young pope:
"Ester, I love God because it's so painful to love human beings. I love a God that never leaves me who had always (word not clearly heard--was the word refused?) me. God, the absence of God, always reassuring, and definitive. I'm a priest. I renounced my fellow man, my fellow woman, because I don't want to suffer, because I'm incapable of withstanding the heartbreak of love, because I'm unhappy, like all priests. It would be wonderful to love you the way you want to be loved. It's not possible (cuz?) I'm not a man. I'm a coward."
The pope character said he was a coward because he did not wish to risk the possibility of a failed relationship and suffer hurt. This blogger supposes that the heart only hurts when true sacrificial love has been judged as insufficient, misunderstood as selfish and taken for granted. This blogger also supposes that one can also be hurt by a failed relationship even though the blame can be placed on one's own selfishness and self-righteousness, but that pain is a superficial pain.
Christ hurts. His pain is real because His love is real, but He was not a coward and has not given up on loving sinners. For the love of God and human beings, He had laid down His life on earth. Christ's heart continues to bleed out of love for the forgiveness of sins. A coward's love is not the love that Christ has and had died to give to all nor is it the love that God expects. God accepts love that is complete, pure and holy, and more often than not, painful, but the pain is so minuscule that it bears no resemblance to the pain that Christ feels. God always know where one's love originates, whether it is right from the immediacy of the heart or based on a preconceived plan, whether it is true or hypocritical and whether it is bogus or painful, even when it is not overtly expressed, for it is like air, invisible and an integral part of the very life that needs it to exist.
Is one who hides his love, who is afraid to love another person, who chooses to avoid the intimacy of a carnal relationship or even a platonic friendly relationship, like the pope character, because of the risk of a painful heartbreak, necessarily a coward? Maybe so, or maybe not. Maybe these words spoken by the young pope in the segment that introduced Sister Bice give a partial answer [2] (as heard by this blogger):
"...she's not quaint; she's friendly. Mother! Let me explain something to you that you and your long life have not yet had occasion to understand. Friendly relationships are dangerous. They lend themselves to ambiguities, misunderstandings and conflicts, and they always end badly; formal relationships, on the other hand, are as clear as spring water. Their rules are carved in stone. There's no risk of being misunderstood and they last forever. Now, you need to know I do not appreciate friendly relationships, and I'm a great admirer of formal ones. Where there are formal relationships there are rights; where there are rights, the earth order reigns." [3]
Does Heaven have order and the whole universe under it follow a formal set of rules? Does God not have a set of rules for people to live by, like the Ten Commandments? [4] Are the Commandments not already embedded deep inside each person's heart, Commandments that have become inaccessible under layers upon layers of pride, the first being Eve and Adam's Original Sin? [5]
Did the Son of God not become man to save man by helping man dissolve his multiple layers of sins by showing man His love and how to love? Christ's love was not a carnal love, a jealous or a volatile love but a pure, consistent and self-sacrificing love given freely to all, unambiguous, uncomplicated and unrequited. As much as the disciples thought they loved Jesus and Jesus thought they loved Him, they could not even stay up with Him at the Garden of Gethsemane. [6] That must have been heartbreaking for Jesus Who knew He was going to be betrayed and arrested, and He was without support. Alone by Himself, He loved.
Therefore, the young pope had it right. He was a coward. He could not love like Christ had loved. He renounced his fellow man and fellow woman to save himself from being heartbroken which is the exact opposite of what Christ did. Christ loved His fellow man and fellow woman and His heart was broken by them, yet He continued to forgive and love. No wonder why Jesus' heart bleeds because It hurts so much, because His love is being ignored and sinners continue to sin.
The young pope is a fictional character. Bergolio is real. Like the fictional character, he, too, is a coward and is incapable of loving in the manner Christ had loved. Instead of forgiving people he dislikes, he investigates them, demotes them, castigates them and closes invidiously the door to seminarians [7] with immutable, but suppressible, homosexual tendencies who may genuinely desire to serve Christ in holiness. Everyone is a child of God and loved by God, and is given every opportunity to repent one's sins and love God in return. Bergolio is also given the same opportunity to repent his sins and to love God even though Bergolio's capacity to repent his sins, forgive his enemies, love God and love those whom God loves has been overwhelmed by his love of power and politics, his blatant hypocrisy, unrelenting vindictiveness and intense pride. The heart of Jesus continues to bleed for His beloved servant, Bergolio, whose heart seems to be lacking in faith and in contrition.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scLWcF2I7V8
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuIJVLrIAZQ
[3] Should a loving relationship be spontaneous or should it follow a formal set of rules? Should a relationship between parent and child be strict or permissive? Certain members of certain royal families appear to follow a certain set of rules, even as those rules are being modified in accordance with modern-day permissiveness, bringing embarrassment and loss to the family by an adulterous and deplorable prince in the case of the British monarchy. This blogger supposes that time will tell if the British monarchy and other monarchies around the world will remain intact in the years to come when formalities give way to whims and permissiveness based on relativism and prevailing secular values.
[4] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/command.htm
[5] Those who reject God and those who do not believe that there is God Who is above them are prideful. Some sadly believe that they are gods themselves, especially those who have either power or wealth or both, whether it is their own or the government's. Everyone will eventually get to know humility. Be glad if one is willing to embrace it at some point during life; be sad if one has to be reminded of its absence for an eternity after death.
[6] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26%3A36-46
[7] http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/12/08/vatican_issues_new_guidelines_for_priestly_formation/1277681
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